RD

When you think about March, one of the things that may come to your mind is March Madness which occurs in sports. However music, specifically K-Pop, also has had its share of madness this month with the amount of concert tours K-Pop fans are getting. One of those concert tours that began late last February and concluded last weekend was Hyuna’s first North American tour titled THE QUEEN’S BACK. It was so awesome that I had to take a week off before getting around to typing up this recollection. haha.

I will be reviewing the tour from the Los Angeles stop perspective since that is the one me and my good friend, Pat Fu, experienced. The Los Angeles leg of the tour was held at The Novo which is located in downtown LA party hot spot LA LIVE which is next to major attractions such as the Staples Center and Los Angeles Convention Center (where KCON LA is also held annually). Before the concert, I have never been inside The Novo before so I wondered how big and cool the venue would turn out to be. When I walked inside though I found it really cool as my first impressions were it reminded me of what an inside of a Las Vegas club might turn out to be like. There was a cool, ambient lounging area; but people were not looking to really chillax in it, because they were ready to see their queen Hyuna. Inside the lounging area was a bar. Since me and my friend are over 21, we wanted to get hyped even more and we bought drinks before heading into the seating/stage area. The staff at the bar and throughout the rest of THE NOVO were friendly and gave above average service in my opinion. We had someone escort us directly to our row, so we wouldn’t have trouble trying to find it in the dark. My favorite staff’s person though was the restroom attendant. They had someone actually hand out soap, like actually squeeze it into your hands, and pass you paper towels before even going for it yourself. That’s how you know it’s high class. hahaha. There was only one thing I caught up on that threw me off about the staff a little. I heard one of the ushers tell fans to calm down, because we were too excited. I thought by now, considering how many K-Pop concerts LA has had already, that they should know that most of us K-Pop fans have no chill and are so dedicated to our artists.
Anyways, onto the happenings of the concert. Someone actually told us before the show that there were rumors that there was going to be a 30 minute delay. To me though, the concert started good on time — or maybe it might have been because I was so excited to finally see Hyuna in person that I didn’t actually notice when me and my friend got into our seats. Before the show they had renowned dance cover group UCLA Koreos come out to open the show with a cover to Hyuna’s latest hit song 어때? (How’s This?). It was cool getting to see them perform as I missed them perform last year at KCON in the morning which I really wanted to see. Hyuna’s dancers then came out and started Roll Deep followed by the queen herself marching out with the unique swag she could only pull off herself and jumping into the first verse. The crowd went nuts as Hyuna was finally in person in front of our eyes! Hahaha. After she performed Roll Deep she introduced herself and welcomed the Los Angeles crowd. She then gave fans a photo opportunity of her as she strolled around stage for a few minutes doing cool and cute poses giving fan service to us lucky crowd while lounge music played — which was kind of awkward but at the same time was just so right! She then thanked us for coming again and went back to performing. Throughout the show she performed more of her hit songs such as How’s This, RED, and Ice Cream. Man, this one male fan wanted her to perform Ice Cream, that he screamed out for her to perform Ice Cream and she was taken aback for a second in a funny, in a surprised way. It made us all crack up. She also promoted her latest album A’wesome more and performed songs off of that such as Do It!(for the first time on stage she said), Freaky (which me and Pat Fu were bumping to), and U&Me (my top favorite song of the night I think). She also brought back Change! A lot of fans felt nostalgic once she performed that hit from the good old days. Throughout the night she also had personal fun with her fans which is the reason why me and my friend like her a lot. She not only has her hot media image side, but she also has a down to earth, cool, friendly — real side of herself as well. She let fans ask her questions or even fulfilled some of their wishes such as take a selfie with them in the crowd. There were games played between Hyuna and her fans throughout the concert as well. One of the games was ‘How Compatible Are You With HyunA?’. Some of you might have seen it being played between idol group members on variety shows. The emcee would name two opposite things from a category, such as heels or sneakers, and at the same time after a countdown if you said the same thing as HyunA you would get a point. If you got 3 out of 5 rounds correct, you would win a prize. There were 3 people playing and they all won, so they got polaroid pictures of HyunA which HyunA kissed herself! So lucky! Another game was a dancing game where she called up 5 people to the stage and whoever was the best dancer and showed their love for HyunA the most through dance would win. The song they danced to was her latest song once again, 어때? How’s This?. I guess the prize was a back hug, because this girl got a back hug from HyunA and she was declared the winner. The show was then closing up and like other K-Pop concerts it felt so short. Me and my friend didn’t want HyunA to leave after finally seeing her in person. The show I would say ran for a good hour to an hour and thirty minutes. Like every other K-Pop concert, which makes me love these people I like to classify myself as — a K-Pop fan — people were chanting, “Encore, encore, encore…!”. There was only one song she didn’t perform that me and my friend were saying that she just HAD to perform or it wouldn’t feel right … Then after a few minutes dressed clad in her own tour merch was the queen HyunA coming out and performing the song that made her the queen that she is — BUBBLE POP! At that moment, at that closing moment of the show, me and my friend partied and sang together and knew, and appreciated, that we did it and came all the way out here to LA to show love for our homegirl, our queen, HyunA. …And that’s all I got to say. In the words of my good friend … “It was a good trip.” –in my own words now, a memorable trip that I will never forget (Thanks Pat Fu. ❤). ONTO KCON LA 2017!!! Where we will party even more – me and these other K-Pop fans out here! Thank you HyunA for being A’wesome. A-ing (Also her newly named fandom name)! ❤